


sincere and honest conversation

by eagle_eyes



Series: found family bingo fics [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Aromantic Sasha James, Asexual Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Canon Asexual Character, Coming Out, Found Family, Gen, No beta we die like archival assistants, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28739490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eagle_eyes/pseuds/eagle_eyes
Summary: sometimes your boss unexpectedly comes out to you after you accidentally get him drunk. it's kinda weird, but you just gotta roll with it.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood & Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker
Series: found family bingo fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1899952
Comments: 13
Kudos: 113
Collections: Aspec Archives Week, Found Family Bingo





	sincere and honest conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "drunken confessions" prompt for Found Family Bingo and for the "drinks" prompt for Aspec Archives Week!

Sasha had never encountered drunk Jon before, but she had to admit, he was surprisingly hilarious. 

Of course, it had taken a lot of effort to convince Jon to actually come out for drinks with them - he’d been adamant about the fact that he had a lot of work to be getting on with and didn’t have time for socialising. He’d only conceded after Sasha had _maybe_ guilted him a _tiny_ bit by telling him how worried she was about his health and that it really wasn’t good for him to not give himself a break. Which, in fairness, wasn’t even really a guilt trip - it was just her actual opinion.

But he was here now, and only two drinks in was already pretty far gone. After just one drink he’d developed a rapt interest in one of Tim’s stories about a date he’d been on that had ended badly and humorously, and he was now grilling Tim on any similar stories he had. Seeing their boss show such an interest in Tim’s personal life after he’d spent most of the time they knew each other avoiding any personal conversation at all was quite strange, but Tim was certainly taking it in stride.

“And _then_ ,” Tim announced gleefully, “When I woke up the next morning my coat was _gone_.”

“ _Really_?” replied an enthralled Jon, “That’s so strange...do you really think they -”

“Well I don’t see what else could have happened.”

“Maybe it was like that guy with the, ummm, the creepy vase wasn’t it?” said Martin excitedly, “Y’know, the guy who kept losing things that then no one else could remember?”

“Oh yeah, Mr...Romano, or something? Something like that, it’s been a while,” Jon shrugged, “Anyway I doubt such a powerful entity would care much about Tim’s coat.”

“It _was_ a nice coat, boss,” Tim protested, “I mean, you saw me wear it a couple times, right Sash? Back me up here!”

“Hm, it was alright,” Sasha nodded, “I still think your green coat looks better though.”

“A-ha! Jon leaped out of his chair, causing everyone around the table to yelp in surprise, “That _proves_ it wasn’t the vase - if it was, how could Sasha remember the coat?”

“I guess,” said Martin begrudgingly, “I thought you didn’t believe in all that stuff anyway.”

“Oh, right. Yes. Quite,” Jon sat down again, apparently only now remembering his own scepticism.

“So, boss,” Tim jabbed at him with the edge of his glass, and was met by Jon blinking at him obliviously, “Enough about me, what are some of _your_ embarrassing stories?”

Jon shrugged and made an “I dunno” noise. “I don’t really _have_ embarrassing stories, Tim. I mean, you’re a disaster, obviously,” Sasha cackled and clapped Tim on the back. “But I’m not like you,” he continued, “I’ve - I’ve got it together, y’know, Tim? Just absolutely got it together!” 

“Bullshit!” Tim laughed, “I mean Jesus Christ, Jon, I’d have thought you’d at least drop your ‘sensible mature one’ act now that we’ve got you plastered. Now come on! Spill the embarrassing secrets!”

“My lips are sealed,” Jon announced, folding his arms and legs in a manner that would probably have been more imposing if he hadn’t wobbled alarmingly in his chair.

“Maybe we need to give him more alcohol,” Martin muttered, an argument which was significantly undercut by the aforementioned wobbling.

“Or _maybe_ we should do the responsible thing and cut him off before he ends up on the floor,” said Sasha, prompting a chorus of protests, primarily from Jon himself, who yelled something that sounded kind of like “I’m _fine_ , Sasha!” before he flopped forward onto the table.

“Ok, buddy,” Sasha laughed as she propped him back up, “I think that’s gonna be your last drink, you massive lightweight”

“Oh!” Jon suddenly jerked out of Sasha’s grip and sat bolt upright, “I just remembered something...a story…”

“Uh huh?” Tim leaned forward, clearly intrigued.

“So there’s this merry-go-round in London Zoo, right…” Jon paused for what at first seemed like effect, but after a couple of minutes waiting for him to continue, the archival assistants all collectively realised that he’d actually just trailed off and forgotten the point he was trying to make.

“Christ, this is pointless,” Tim poured himself another drink from the pitcher he was sharing with Sasha, “The whole point of getting Jon drunk is so that I could find out about his embarrassing past hookups and possibly have blackmail material to use if he ever got on my case later, and now he can barely talk!”

Jon started laughing hysterically. As in, tears streaming down his face laughing.

Tim, Sasha, and Martin looked at each other in confusion.

“Oh christ I think I broke him,” Tim said, horrified, “Guys, I just killed our boss. I’m sorry. I mean it’s not like no one was predicting it but I’m sorry.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and reached over to put a reassuring hand on Jon’s shoulder.

“Hey, Jon, buddy....” she began slowly, “What’s so funny?”

“Tim thinks - Tim thinks -” Jon struggled to get the words out through his giggling, “Tim thinks I’ve had _hookups_!” He just about managed to get through the sentence before immediately collapsing into laughter again.

Sasha just turned back to the other two and shrugged helplessly.

“I mean, it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you haven’t,” Martin ventured. He was pretty tipsy himself and honestly wasn’t sure what was going on, but he figured he should try to be helpful, “Not everyone goes in for that sort of thing, you know.”

“Ha! You’re damn right there,” Jon chuckled, “It’s just funny y’know! I mean, obviously I haven’t had any hookups, Tim’s just being, uhhhh...dumb.”

Sasha gave Tim another friendly slap on the back as he sputtered indignantly, “Well, ok, _yeah_ , you’re kind of a nerd, I guess, but are you seriously calling me dumb because I didn’t want to make assumptions?” Jon’s laughter became even more hysterical. “I mean, it’s always the ones you least expec- _stop_ looking at me like that Sasha I’m being serious!”

Jon just rolled his eyes at that, “Come on, Tim, you know that’s not what I’m talking about!”

“...No, not really,” said Tim, puzzled, “What’s this actually about, Jon?”

“Right. Tim,” Jon spoke very slowly, either because of the alcohol or because he was trying to explain something to Tim in much the same way you would explain something to a small child, “You should know…you should know, Tim. This has nothing to do with like, our personalities, or like…. Like I don’t think I’m smarter than you because I don’t have casual hookups or whatever, ok Tim? Tim, if that’s what makes you happy you shouldn’t be ashamed of that, ok? I know I’m hard on you sometimes but you’re a really smart guy, Tim. We all appreciate that and I think you should give yourself credit for that.”

“Wait, what? Boss, I never said -”

“You’re our friend, Tim, and we’d never judge you for being _you_. That would just be so...like it’s not the 1950s, Tim -”

Tim, who’s interactions with Jon usually tended towards “mildly acerbic” was naturally a bit baffled by Jon’s sudden display of sentimentality. He quickly shot Sasha a pleading look, which she responded to with a look which pretty clearly said “Don’t look at me, you got yourself into this one mate.”

Thankfully for Tim’s steadily fraying patience, Martin finally jumped in, “Ok, Jon, we get that you appreciate Tim and don’t judge him, but what are you actually trying to say here?”

Jon looked at Martin blankly for a few seconds, “Ummm...you know, I’m not actually sure,” he immediately started giggling again.

Tim just put his head in his hands and muttered something about how this was the last time he’d ever buy Jon a drink.

“Oh wait! I remember!” Jon slapped the table excitedly, “It’s, uh, it’s really funny that Tim thinks I’ve had any hookups because I’m, y’know, I’m asexual and I’m not interested in sex or anything like that. So like...obviously, right?”

“Right! Thank you! We got there in the end!” Tim cried dramatically. He then realised that that was probably not the best reaction, and followed it up with “Oh, that’s cool, boss” and raising his glass to him as if about to give a toast.

The assistants lapsed into silence for a few seconds, not sure if they should make this into a Thing or if they should just let Jon’s drunken revelation pass without comment.

“So,” Martin eventually piped up, “If you’re not interested in sex how do you feel about dating in general?”

Tim immediately switched his attention from Jon to look at him incredulously, “Are you fucking kidding me, Martin? You ever heard of the concept of subtlety?” 

“It’s a reasonable question!”

“Dating’s good!” Jon loudly exclaimed, “I had a girlfriend in univers - oh my god you guys should _meet_ her. I mean, I haven’t talked to her in years but she has a podcast now and she’s really cool -”

Sasha and Tim both tried not to laugh at the way Martin’s face lit up and Jon’s answer. All of a sudden, Jon seemed to realise that he’d actually just shared something pretty personal, and he looked a little bit crestfallen.

“I hope you don’t think this is weird,” he mumbled, “I mean, I know it kind of is, but-”

He was instantly met with a chorus of “What?” “No!” “Jon, it’s fine!” 

Sasha leaned over to rub his shoulder affectionately, “It’s not weird at all, Jon. I mean, I’m aromantic myself, so I get it. And I’m not sure about the others, but even if they can’t relate, they can at least be understanding!”

“I mean, I’ve recently been informed that I’m a really smart guy, so I’m sure I can,” said Tim, “Of course, I’ve also been recently informed by the same guy that I’m dumb, but I’m choosing to believe he didn’t mean that one.”

“We’re glad you told us, Jon,” Martin smiled softly, “It’s good to know you can trust us with this.”

Jon nodded and smiled at his friends, “Thanks, everyone. It...it means a lot.” 

Tim meanwhile leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily, “So, I guess I’m not getting any embarrassing Jon stories tonight, huh?” he sipped on his drink.

Sasha swatted his arm lightly, “No, but you got sincere and honest conversation with your good friend, and that’s more important.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Tim grinned and reached across the table to ruffle Jon’s hair affectionately.

Jon yelped loudly and ducked away from Tim, once again nearly falling out of his chair. Tim started laughing, and this set off all the others including Jon. They spent the rest of the night in such a way, just enjoying each others’ company and laughing at nothing in particular. 

It was a wonderful night, and at the end of the night when they parted ways, Jon felt a lightness in his heart. He was still a little out of it, so wasn’t entirely sure where this feeling was coming from. But it was nice, like a weight had been lifted. He was finally known and understood by his friends. It was a small victory, in a world of strange terrors and mysterious horrors, but tonight it was enough.


End file.
